Mr. Speaker, back in the mid-1990s former prime minister Jean Chrétien made a great effort to bring in something that would ultimately provide assurances with respect to safeguarding our food products. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency was created by Mr. Chrétien in recognition of how important it is to ensure that we have safe food. All in all, the agency has done a phenomenal job, given the resources that it has.
The concern is that the agency needs to have the resources necessary to assure Canadians that a food product is of good quality so that we can prevent things of this nature from taking place in the first place. When it does occur, the government has an obligation to be forthright and transparent with Canadians, thereby protecting their health and also protecting stakeholders and industries, such as our cattlemen in the Prairies.